Just curious because everyone keeps telling me there is a roughly 93% success rate for my stage (IIb) and that makes me very happy to hear! But I'm just curious what happens to the other 7%? Do they bump up to a higher stage? Do they have complications from surgery or chemo? Do they opt out of some treatment?

it's not very realistic to go by these stats which just throw everything (I.e, all types) together. For instance, I am stage 2a but my doctor told me I have a 20-25% chance of recurrence. He based this on MY personal situation:size of tumour, grade of tumour and the fact that I am HER2 positive. It's annoying to me to see these statistics because then people think that if you have "early" stage cancer you're going to be perfectly OK. To me a 20-25 percent chance of recurrence is nothing to sneeze at and will be something I worry about for the rest of my life

Yes, that's true Fiddler. And often a prognosis that doctors provide patients is based on older stats when treatments were not as good. But, any chance of a recurrence is a worry and I'm certainly in your boat percentage wise.

According to my little knowledge, the blood test is available now and its working well to detect before they start to spread. the sensitivity of these tests are high according to some studies. I mean tumor marker, I think most of you know about CA 15.3, CA 125 and CEA blood test, they can follow up the cancer mets/rec. well. its not 100% perfect but it gives indecations about your status, I think its not costly. some time the result become high for other reasons, however, if its more than 30, its better to visit the doctor.

these 3 tests can help who treat their cancer and also the new diagnoses to know if the metastasis spread in your body with other test like ct and bone scan.

I just had a surgeon followup with a p.a. physicians assistant..had the biopsy, surgery and 15 rounds of radiation in Nov.2017

While I was talking to the physicians assistant, we discussed my HBP, my diabetes and my psoriasis. All these are connected to a low immune system. I said, I must be a ticking time bomb..their reply..yes you are. I am 63.

Came out sad, as she said you know breast cancer can go to other parts like lung etc.

Even tho I am cancer free, estrogen pos. But no cancer in the lymphs..is my life always doom and gloom, waiting for the next shoe to drop?

No, things are not all doom and gloom. Forgetting your other ailments, which have nothing to do with your bc, your treatment was appropriate to your diagnosis (I'm assuming you will also have hormone blockers) and so you can properly expect that the 93% chance of survival applies to you.

I think about recurrence, but I put little value in the statistics. My MO said I had a value of 3% less recurrence if I had chemo.

His opinion was I get no chemo. What exactly can he base that on? The onca score of 19 and 17? I believe he did. Well that score is valid with no lymph node involvement and HER2-. Then they added that as long as you were less than 4 nodes involved, the onca score was still valid. I fail to understand how someone with zero nodes could be in the same recurrence statistics as someone with 1-3 nodes. One of my positive nodes was not a sentinel node, I had 2 positive nodes. I also had bilateral cancer, doesn't that mean a cumulative score for recurrence? I had a 3 % recurrence with my left breast and no nodes and Her2-. Then add in the fact I was also right breast HR+ Her2+ and extranodal. So does that mean you ignore the left breast completely? Doesn't that also warrant a 3% recurrence without chemo? He still stands by his stats that I only got a 3% value to my 6 cycles of chemo. I believe it was more like 6% +3% for the left, then add in the Her2+ and that I believe is a huge increase increase in value. I had chemo. Bravo for tumor boards!

So unless everyone in the study can be compared to your statistics, it is not valid. I sure wish we could trust what our MO's tell us. I don't believe I can.

I think the chemo is important to women with stage 2 and positive nodes. my onco told me it's necessary to make sure there is no metastasis around your body + try to stop and kill the cancerous cells before it's locate in some organs outside the breast area. So we should care about metastasis before recurrence, the onco dx test not accurate 100% ( like Ca 15.3 and CEA mark tumour ) if the doctors not make sure you are free-cancer disease and metastases not present in your ct/bone scan .that's what I know and no idea how much accurate is that.